Cruise_me_Crazy

Hi all.

Thank you for so many informative options.

I am considering a bike tour with a foodie focus (according to promo) :D.

Is this something worth doing in Victoria?

It is for approximately 4 hours.

I will tell you how up to date the US Border Protection people are these days. My fingerprints are on file in Australia being a retired Police Officer, having had prints taken back in 1967 on joining.

 

When I arrived in LA in April post cruise, the US Border Protection guy said ' Your fingerprints are on file in Australia, but we will let you in to the USA of A, welcome to America sir, how is retirement after law enforcement sir ?' True story.

 

Of course there is cross border cooperation, there has to be. And as has been said, be up front with US Authorities, you won't win if you argue, believe me.

I never got any of that Les, they didn't even want to see what I declared let alone who I was working for back in Aus. The guy processing us was lovely though. :)

One way to ensure you don't need travel insurrance is to buy it.

 

 

 

 

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Ha ha! Ain't that the truth!

Welcome Rumple. I have just completed a TA from Rome to Florida and loved the U.S. Cruisers I met. Currently in Vegas & realise why all the delightful cruisers from your country begged us not to believe all of US is like the peeps at FT Lauderdale and Vegas :D, definitely different demographics. Get the good & the bad, but overall, fantastic people :)

I would be applying a month out. It may take up to a fortnight. Ours took just over a week but we never received the email that was meant to notify us, so it may have been sooner! :)

Hi, does anyone have photos of the drink menu on Sea Princess?

 

 

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Are you after prices or choices?

Absolutely the world forme!

We will be home on Sunday & just realised that we will have circumnavigated the globe :p! But whatever the cruise, we will need a laundry on board. This TA with no laundry was a trial!! :)

Thats the key......and thats where this board comes into its own.

How many times do we see questions about how do we get from the airport to the ship /ship to airport....usually Sydney or Auckland in our part of the world . Every year its asked time and time again and every year we are happy to answer , so that situations such as this need not occur .

Yes, cannot say enough how fabulous CC has been. Enhanced our TA to no end. Met the loveliest people & had fantastic tours. Both directly from CC.

It amazes me the amount of info freely shared here. Our table mates were elite status from their cruising however still less knowledge than what I received from the roll call & boards! :)

What a sad story. How did they get it it so wrong?? Insurance for the cruise may have helped, but if they missed the cruise transfers then their airfares may have been too tight a turnaround for a claim anyway.

So sorry for them.

Funnily enough people who we have just cruised with have acknowledged the service is more personalised on the larger ships. They stated they were surprised at the difference as crew on the bigger ones made extra effort to know their pax.

I find tendering tedious and having seen the older demographic on the TA, believe some would battle with all the walking. Not sure if larger ships is really what the market is looking for.... :confused:

Rhapsody of the Seas - 28th October 2014

My husband was diagnosed with Meningococcal after we returned from this cruise. Luckily as he had prompt treatment he will recover without any devastating results, though no long term issues have been discussed as yet. We have taken 25 cruises to date, have had the norm - flu, colds and even the Norovirus on a number of occasions.

It is a concern that such a dangerous disease such as meningococcal could be present on a cruise ship and could easily be misdiagnosed. I can’t imagine that a cruise ship would have the facilities to diagnose such contagions, certainly not within the small time frame in which the disease can become life threatening.

All can say is be aware of any illness while travelling and on your return if you do feel unwell take no chances and see your Doctor.

Hope hubby is on the mend.

Rumpunchgirl. Not a great way to end your holiday.

Hmmmmmmm. What a pain for everyone. I think the activation of the beacon is a big issue as is tampering with safety gear. The idiot/s are in a world of pain :mad: and rightly so.

Lovely to hear it has come around so quickly. Enjoy your cruise!!

:eek: 3 days inside, that is cold. Brissy cold is having to wear socks when I walk the dogs at 7am ( cause I cannot walk them at 6 - 6.30 am as it us too cold :D) and I whinge about those weeks big time!!! ;)

Have fun. We leave less than a week away & I am beyond excited!! :D

I accidentally on purpose mentioned (again) that I was about to be on holls at work, and a colleague threatened to stab me in the eye with a fork!! :o:p:D

Hi & welcome. :)

A balcony will be a must as the fresh air and view of the horizon will help.

The newer bigger ships will be less prone to motion as will your choice of cabin area. Pay a little more and get one low & centre or to the rear.

Hi dzzar9. Welcome! :)

Re decorations, if luggage is not an issue, ie you don't have restrictions from the flight then I say go hard! I had the solar lights strapped around our balcony railing & they were just magic every evening. As we were on a Chrissy cruise I also had a pop up Chrissy tree that lit up, parents wrappedand enough expanding tinsel decorations to fill a warehouse (well maybe a cabin ;))!!!

Your cruise sounds fabulous. Somewhere on this board someone had wiped up a spreadsheet costing their drinks. You will probably average 3 - 4 drinks aday on port days and around 6-7 on sea days. These may not necessarily be alcoholic :D, it depends if you are happy with the free lemon cordial and tea / coffee provided.

I brought my own teapot plunger and loose leaf tea. Life's too short to drink yuk tea bags just because they are free ;)!

I hope you have a great. Cruise.

I hope you do not think this is inappropriate, but if you have ashes of your mother-in- law, maybe a small ceremony and scattering with a laugh about the memories & some tears for everyone's loss would be appropriate.

You can still remember the grande-dame without the sadness then xxxxx :)

I am not sure what permissions you need for that :).

I think it depends. On your insurance. You can get cruise specific insurance or general OS travel insurance. When I looked into it the specific cruise insurance had much better coverage but was dearer! :)

Welcome to CC, and sorry for your loss.

Are your kids busy do-ers that like rock climbing, ice skating, water slides etc??

Are they explorers who like learning about new places and history??

Are they bookworms, social butterfly's, solo-it's or tend to stick together with mum n dad n family??

Do they get along (in general) or fight constantly?

I think if you tailor their likes & personality into you cruise destination & brand / ship choice you will get a better outcome than focussing on the accommodation options first. :)

I hope you make some great memories for the kids & honour your mother-in-law in style!

I know she had to be fixed, but we were very disappointed that it was decided that we'd have to miss our New Zealand cruise to do so :(.

 

The cruise credit is wonderful, but it still doesn't make up for missing NZ.

 

We loved our time in Australia (Sydney and Brisbane), but didn't get to enjoy New Zealand. We took a harbor tour in Sydney and saw the Sea Princess in dry dock at the military wharf. I told the tour guy's "if you see her here NEXT week, we'll be very unhappy and heading home :(", and we were.

 

I hope she's fixed now and will be good for the next cruise's.

 

Fern

Oh Fern. I am so sorry to read this. You did heaps of research in the Aus/NZ port of call area. :( I remember your posts! Please come back & have another attempt in the future. I can only imagine how disappointed you must be.

Could it be "cookies" on your computer? Happens to me with flights also, so I never use the exact date when I'm just researching. Tick "flexible with dates", which shows the date you are really interested in.

Hmmmmm. The stuff I learn here. :)

Wow, this has turned into a very interesting thread! :)

Beyond acknowledging the secret handshake, we're really not allowed to talk about it. I will say the biggest and best perk for us is having the concierge come by and tuck us in every night, and the lullaby is really helpful in falling asleep. We enjoy the perks a great deal.;)

:D:D:D Now that is a funny post! Ha ha ha!

Agreed. There are a very small amount that can be obnoxious about it. Hopefully this is not how they act on a cruise.

I agree :), but then if they are we just listen politely and move away at the first chance we get! :) They're happy no need to ruin their fun!!

The reason we're considering this ship and cruise is because of point of embarkation, timing and itinerary. If a smaller ship had all of this, we'd definitely choose that. What we really want to understand is the difference, if any, in enjoyment of the cruise on a bigger ship. Many thanks.........

Pninas, welcome to CC :)

I would be keen to hear what you think and what differences you noticed if you do decide to book this large ship. :) Please consider doing a review if you do cruise on a biggie!

Its 100 shares.

 

Chez

xx

Thanks for the quick response Chez:)

Thanks everyone. I will keep looking at options! :) I appreciate the input.